The invention relates to copy sheet control and, more particularly, to the capability of mixing copy sheets of different characteristics along the paper path.
If imaging machines are to become more versatile in completing complex jobs, the machine control must be able to adapt to a wide variety of requirements in an efficient manner. Modern business and document needs oftentimes dictate the need for prints or images with a variety of interspersed features. A suitable control must be able to accurately and efficiently schedule the machine for coordinating these various features.
In a complex set of images, many of the images may require individually tailored features to provide an accurate completed set. For example, the process dimension of a sheet may determine whether or not a specific operation or control can be performed on a sheet. That is, it may not be possible to rotate a sheet whose diagonal length exceeds a given size due to hardware limitations. It may not even be possible to intermingle copy sheets if the control is not easily adopted to timing changes.
It is known in the prior art to be able to provide selected documents in a set of documents with different features. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,234 discloses a user interface screen for programming different features for individual documents or groups of documents in a set of documents in a black and white reproduction machine.
It is also known to be able to recover from a jam condition by selectively controlling images or copy sheets in process. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,711 to Schron, assigned to Xerox Corporation, discloses a control system for controlling the shutdown of a paper path system in a copy machine when a paper handling fault occurs. Upon detecting a malfunction or jam, the control system evaluates the status of all sheets in a sheet handling system and makes determinations whether to hold sheets from entering into a boundary between two zones or to drive a sheet at a boundary into a next zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,567 to Ziehm, assigned to Xerox Corporation, discloses a method and apparatus for clearing jams in a transport path of a copier. When a jam is sensed, in-process sheets either at a jam location or at an area upstream of the jam location are clustered while sheets downstream from the jam location are allowed to continue out into a catch tray. The jam sheets are removed manually after the last downstream sheet exists the copier and the copier shuts down.
One difficulty in prior art devices is that the control cannot readily respond to document and copy sheet characteristics such as size, texture, or weight to adjust the machine processing parameters. Another difficulty in prior art devices is that the control cannot readily respond to various document and copy sheet characteristics such as size, texture, or weight within a single document set to set hardware and control parameters to produce a completed set.
It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a new and improved system for tracking individual documents or copy sheets of variable characteristics such as size, texture, and weight throughout the copy sheet flow process. Another object of the present invention is to be able to selectively adjust machine timing and hardware responses in order to selectively apply different parameters to individual copy sheets in a document set. Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.